So everyone should read Black Hole by Charles Burns. You may know him as official cover artist for the Believer, and his art is, to my mind, pretty stunning. Block Hole is one of those rare success stories where I picked up an issue on a whim and was completely blown away. And then I waited. Because it turns out I had picked up the second to last issue of a book that had been coming out (very) sporadically for a decade. But having discovered it was a popular indie comic I thought "oh, surely it will finish up and then come out in a collection," and two years later it did. In Spanish. And one year after that it's finally out in a lovely hardcover that I felt compelled to blow some of my Vegas money on.

And it was worth it.

Imagine Reefer Madness as a cautionary tale about STDs, but with a strange mutating disfgiuring plague, an incredible amount of explicit sex and sexual frankness, and a story that, for all the drama and mind-bending weirdness, is actually a high school character drama. Yeah, it's really good. I'm glad I waited for the collection, although I find myself simultaneously pleased and dissapointed that they treat it like a real book. No extras or cover reprints at the back, which feels classy, but those beautiful covers deserve to be seen. Regardless, it's just a mesmerizing little tale of insane-o STDs. You should read it.